Rail Tracers
by Grakul
Summary: In 1930, Isaac and Miria travel by train from New York to California, where they plan to mine for gold. The journey becomes a dangerous one, however, when the Rail Tracer is summoned.


1930

In the late night, a great train departed from New York. A man dressed as a Catholic priest, and a woman dressed as a nun, sat down in their compartment.

"What a nice compartment, Isaac!" the woman said.

"It is very nice, Miria!" the man replied. "Of course, it's only second class. It took all our money just for that!"

"Oh, you must be really rich to ride in first class!"

The door to the compartment opened, and a young, red-haired conductor stepped inside.

"Tickets," he said. Neither Issac nor Miria noticed him.

"Exactly, Miria!" Issac said. "But any class that gets us to Los Angeles is good enough, isn't that right?"

The conductor raised his voice. "Hey! I need to see your tickets!"

Isaac and Miria turned their heads towards him.

"There's no need to be rude!" Isaac said.

"No need!" Miria said.

"Here!" they said in unison, holding out their tickets. The frowning conductor punched them, and left. Isaac and Miria glared after him.

"What a rude man!" Isaac said.

"Rude!" Miria said.

They kept glaring for a couple seconds, then turned back to each other, smiling.

"What are we going to do first when we get to Los Angeles, Isaac?"

"Ah, there's lots of gold-mining equipment we need, Miria! We need to buy pickaxes, buy shovels, buy pans, buy - "

"But we're out of money."

Isaac suddenly became silent, his face frozen in the middle of a word.

"Oh, I know, Isaac! We can rob the rich people in first class!"

"That's a great idea, Miria! Let's go and do that right away!"

* * *

In another, somewhat more luxurious compartment, two young women sat: one trembling, one with her back straight.

"Is... is there no other way?" said the first woman, dark-haired, dressed in green clothes; a long skirt, a coat, and a cloche hat.

"What are you talking about, Reina?" said the other woman, blonde, wearing a loose blue dress and a matching jacket. "This is the final step! Don't tell me have you have doubts now."

"Of course not, Harriet," Reina said meekly. "Of course not."

"It's all very simple. This compartment is the last in the train. We'll kill someone here first, to summon the Tracer. Then we run to our other compartment, at the front of the train, and begin the real ritual. The killing unleashed by the Tracer will be our sacrifice to the greater beings... and they will reward us. We will be queens of this world! We will be as gods!"

Reina looked up. "Yes!"

"Are you with me, Reina?"

"Yes!"

"But we need that first sacrifice. We have to lure someone here. Let's go to the restaurant car."

* * *

Isaac and Miria stood by the counter in the restaurant car.

"The restaurant is between the second class cars and the first class cars", Isaac whispered to Miria. "There'll be rich people here!"

"Rich!" Miria whispered back.

Just then, two well-dressed women, one dark and one blonde, entered the restaurant from the first-class side. They approached the counter, standing right next to Isaac and Miria.

Miria quietly elbowed Isaac in the side. Isaac elbowed Miria in the side. Miria elbowed Isaac in the side.

"Good evening, ladies!" Isaac said.

"Good evening, ladies!" Miria said.

"Good evening, father, " Harriet said, "Sister," nodding towards Miria. Reina nodded, but didn't say anything.

"You seem... well off tonight", Isaac said.

"Actually, father," Harriet said, her face taking on a look of concern, "I am... troubled."

"Oh? What kind of troubles?"

"I... I don't want to talk about it here. Could I possibly ask you to come with me to my compartment?"

"Of course! Just excuse me for a second!" Isaac and Miria turned away from the counter.

"This is great, Miria!" Isaac whispered. "I'll follow this lady to her compartment and rob her! You keep her friend busy here!"

"Very busy!" Miria whispered.

Meanwhile, Harriet was speaking under her breath to Reina.

"Perfect. I'll kill the priest in our first class compartment, then come back here. You keep the sister busy, got it?"

Reina made a noise.

"Got it?" Harriet asked again.

"Yes," Reina said.

* * *

Isaac and Harriet walked through car after car.

"What a long way to go!" Isaac said.

"My compartment is at the very end of the train," Harriet replied. They pushed past the red-haired conductor in the corridor, who made a displeased grunt.

Finally they reached the compartment, and went inside. It was gloomy, only lit by a single small lamp. Isaac immediately started glancing this way and that, looking for valuables.

"What I wanted to talk to you about, father," Harriet said, "is the Rail Tracer."

Isaac stopped glancing around. "The Rail What?"

"You don't know, father? The Rail Tracer is a monster, chasing after trains. Under the cover of darkness, bit by bit... It closes in on the train. It changes its shape into various things."

Isaac swallowed. "What happens if it catches up?"

"The people will... disappear. Starting at the back of the train, slowly but surely... One by one... In the end everyone will have vanished. It will seem as if the train never existed in the first place. What's even creepier..."

Isaac was sweating now. "Even creepier?"

"If you tell this story aboard a train... It'll come to that train as well."

Isaac looked like he was about to scream. But he didn't have time. In a single swift motion, Harriet drew a knife from her jacket and slashed Isaac across the throat. Blood gushed forth. He began to lift his hands, but collapsed to the floor, dead.

"Your death will awaken the Rail Tracer", Harriet said, grinning. She hurried out into the corridor, and ran back towards the restaurant car.

* * *

Reina was chatting with Miria, trying to keep her attention... which was not hard at all. Reina wasn't good at small talk, but Miria kept the conversation going, jumping between all manner of subjects. Reina was starting to suspect she wasn't actually a nun.

"You're so quiet," Miria said suddenly.

"Wha - Quiet?" Reina said.

"I know just the thing! Let's have a bottle of champagne!" Miria said with a smile, but then her shoulders slumped. "Oh, I forgot. We don't have any money... huh?" Her eyebrows went up, and she put a hand down the neck of her habit, fishing out a ten-dollar bill!

"What luck!" Miria said. "It must have gotten stuck there!" She waved the bill at the bartender. "One bottle of your best, please!" The bartender reached under the counter and pulled out a bottle of champagne.

Miria poured it into two glasses. Reina sipped the bubbly drink.

"So... you and your friend..." Reina said, trying to think of something to talk about, "where are you traveling?"

"We're going to California to mine for gold!" Miria replied enthusiastically.

"I see," Reina said. No, this woman was probably not a nun.

"It was Isaac's idea!" Miria beamed.

For a moment, Reina felt kinship with her. "He makes the decisions, of course - "

"Decisions? Nooo... Isaac is very smart, so his ideas always make sense to me!"

"Oh - "

"And I'm also very smart, so my ideas always make sense to him!"

"Right." The kinship was gone. Reina's ideas never made any sense to Harriet.

"Isaac is such a great friend! I couldn't live without him! I'm sure your friend is great too!"

Reina's looked down at her glass. "When I met Harriet... it was a very bad time in my life, and I was powerless to change it. She saved me. She gave my life... a new meaning."

"Oh - !" Miria's eyes were watering. "That's so very kind of her! And now you are happy together... like me and Isaac!"

"Well..." Just then, the door to the restaurant car opened, and Harriet came in. She hurried towards the counter. The reality of the situation hit Reina instantly. The woman's friend, Isaac, was dead. The Rail Tracer was loose on the train.

"Where's Isaac?" Miria asked Harriet.

"He'll be with you soon," Harriet replied. She grabbed Reina by the hand. "Let's go, Reina."

"Wait!" Miria said. She handed the champagne bottle to Reina. "Please take this! And share it with your kind, kind friend!"

* * *

With a gasp, Isaac woke up on the floor of the first-class compartment. There was an ache in his throat, but it soon disappeared. He sat up and looked around. There was no one else there. What had happened? What was he doing here?

Right! He was going to rob the place!

Isaac quickly searched the compartment, looked under the seats, on the shelves - but there was nothing valuable. Nothing at all, actually.

"What kind of rich person travels without money?" he cried.

Disappointed, Isaac walked out into the corridor.

* * *

In a second-class compartment by the front of the train, Harriet drew a pentagram in chalk on the floor, while Reina lit candles around the room. She placed nine unlit ones in a circle around the pentagram. She and Harriet sat down on opposite sides of it.

"This is it," Harriet said. "All the power in the world is within our reach. Are you ready, Reina?"

"Yes," said Reina. "Yes, I am."

"Don't fail me. Don't fail yourself."

Harriet began the chanting, Reina following suit.

"Per adonai eloim, adonai jehova, adonai sabaoth - "

Six of the candles around the pentagram lit up by themselves, burning with a blue flame.

Six dead already, Reina thought. She felt dizzy. But she had to go on.

* * *

Isaac walked back through the car, heading for the restaurant. He met a yawning old man in the corridor. As they walked past each other, Isaac was racking his brain to try and come up with a new plan to make money, but couldn't think of anything. It would be easier when he could talk it over with Miria, he thought. It always was.

Suddenly Isaac heard a shout from behind him. He turned around.

The old man was frozen in fear, staring at an open window next to him. Two red eyes shone outside. A pair of arms, made of dark slime or mist, reached in, embraced the man, enveloping him completely - and then it was all gone, both the man and the other thing. The whole event took no more than a second.

* * *

The seventh pentagram candle lit up.

* * *

As Isaac stared in disbelief at the empty corridor, the full memory of the story the woman had told came back.

"The Rail Tracer!" he screamed. He turned and ran down the corridor, as fast as he could. He had to get away! He had to warn Miria!

* * *

The young, red-haired conductor walked the corridors. Displeased, as he often was. These train rides where dull. Nothing more than filler in his life. What was the point of being the only real human in the world, at times when the world was pointless?

Perhaps he should kill every passenger on the train? He'd had that thought before. But no. Just as pointless.

He heard running footsteps ahead, and a passenger - the Catholic priest - came around a corner just in front of him. The priest couldn't stop in time, but the conductor nimbly stepped out of the way at the last second. The priest tripped and crashed into a wall.

Why did passengers have to keep bothering him? "Hey, you! Slow down!" he barked.

"The Rail Tracer!" the priest shouted, sprawling on the floor. "The Rail Tracer!"

"Be quiet," the conductor muttered, starting to turn away. But the priest got back to his feet and grabbed him by the shoulders.

"Listen to me, sir!" the priest said. "You might be a very rude man, but you are a conductor! And you have a responsibility!"

"Responsibility?"

"There is a monster onboard! The Rail Tracer! Your duty is to protect this train and its passengers!"

"What are you talking about?"

"Have you no pride in your profession? Have you no compassion?!"

Protect. Pride. Compassion. The conductor hadn't looked at things in this way before.

Suddenly, a pair of slimy, misty arms reached out from nowhere behind the priest's back, wrapping around him, enveloping him fully, shrinking towards nothingness -

* * *

The eighth pentagram candle lit up.

* * *

\- but then, the conductor's arm shot out, grabbing hold of the entity before it could disappear.

"That man is mine," the conductor said. "And I choose to grant him mercy. There is no way for you to stop me, Rail Tracer."

The Rail Tracer quickly grew again, spurting a dozen arms and lunging at the conductor. He smiled.

* * *

"...daemonia coeli gad, almonsin..." Reina and Harriet had been chanting for a long time now, but the ninth candle still hadn't lit up. Reina looked at Harriet. Harriet frowned, but they kept chanting.

Then the eighth candle went out.

"Something's wrong," Harriet said. "Keep chanting! We just need a couple more." She took out her knife. "I'll handle it myself. The power will be ours!" She went out into the corridor.

Reina continued the chant. She had never known power. She wanted it, so badly...

Or did she? A doubt, long repressed, forced its way into her mind. No. She didn't want power over others. What she wanted was to not be powerless. And while she followed Harriet, she always would be.

Harriet hurried over to the next compartment. The door was locked, but with a swift kick, she broke the lock and the door swung open.

Inside were a woman and two children in bunk beds. The noise of the lock breaking had awoken the woman, and she stared at Harriet, startled. Harriet raised the knife, a crazy gleam in her eyes.

Then something heavy hit her in the back of the head, and she collapsed to the floor. Behind her stood Reina, holding the champagne bottle Miria had given her.

The woman in bed gasped.

"Don't worry," Reina said, kicking the knife away from the unconscious Harriet. "You're safe now."

* * *

Isaac woke up, again. He was on the floor of the corridor, covered in dark slime. More was splattered across the walls, the roof... and the man standing above him. The red-haired conductor's uniform was drenched with the stuff, and it covered his face.

"What happened now?" Isaac said weakly.

"Are you all right, sir?" the conductor said, his voice filled with nothing but genuine concern. He held out a hand. Isaac grasped it, and the conductor pulled him to his feet.

"I apologize for the inconvenience," the conductor said.

"The Rail Tracer...!" Isaac began.

"It will not bother you anymore, I assure you."

The first rays of the morning sun shone in through the windows. The slime began to melt away, turning into smoke, dissipating completely. The conductor's uniform was spotless once again.

"I'd love to hear more about the Rail Tracer, sir," the conductor said. "But you really should get some rest. It's still a long way to Los Angeles. Perhaps you'll tell me the full story later?"

"Isaac! There you are!" Miria came walking down the corridor, from the direction of the restaurant car. She waved to Isaac.

"Miria! Oh, I'm so glad to see you, Miria!" Isaac fell into her arms.

"What's the matter, Isaac? Did you rob the rich lady?"

"I'm so tired, Miria. Let's go and sleep!"

"Let's sleep all day!"

The two of them walked back towards their compartment, not even noticing the strange company passing them in the other direction. The half-conscious Harriet, securely held by two large men; a mother with two young children; and behind them, Reina. But Reina took hold of Miria's hand as they met. Miria looked at her quizzically.

"Thank you," Reina said.

"For what?" Miria asked, looking even more quizzical.

"I - " Reina couldn't find the words.

"Thank you, for a lovely evening!" Miria said, and smiled broadly. She and Isaac continued along.

Harriet was brought before the red-haired conductor.

"What's this?" he asked.

"That madwoman came into my compartment with a knife!" the mother said, holding her children very close. "But this brave girl stopped her!" She looked at Reina.

"That was very courageous of you, miss," the conductor said. "Don't worry. I will make sure this woman is handed over to the proper authorities."

* * *

The sun shone brightly over Los Angeles as the train rolled into the station. The young, red-haired conductor watched as passengers walked out onto the platform, safe and sound. They were beings of his imagination, and it was he who should decide their fates. His decision was mercy.

Isaac and Miria sprinted past him and off the train, laughing, both wearing a multitude of pearl necklaces.

"Thank you for traveling with us!" he called out after them. "I hope you enjoy Los Angeles!"

"Thieves! Stop the thieves!" someone shouted from inside the car.

"That conductor wasn't rude at all!" Isaac said to Miria as they ran.

"Not rude?" Miria replied.

"No! He really was a very pleasant man once you got to know him! Now let's buy some pickaxes!"


End file.
